OBJECTIVE

Epicardial fat is associated with cardiovascular risk factors and adverse outcomes. However, it is not clear if epicardial fat remains to be a mortality risk when coronary calcium score (CAC) is taken into account.

METHODS

We studied the 1005 participants from the St. Francis Heart Study who were apparently healthy with CAC scores at 80th percentile or higher for age and gender, randomly assigned to placebo or statin therapy. At baseline, lipid profiles and non-contrast CT images were obtained where the epicardial fat volume was analyzed. Likelihood ratio testing was used to assess the additional prognostic value of epicardial fat to CAC for the risk of all-cause mortality.

RESULTS

Increased epicardial fat volume was associated with higher CAC. For each unit increase in lnCAC, the average epicardial fat volume increased by 3.34 mL/m. After a mean follow-up period of 17 years, 179 (18%) participants died. Increased epicardial fat volume was associated with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.11 (95% CI: 1.02 to 1.20) predicting all-cause mortality. In the stratified analysis testing strata of epicardial fat and CAC, those with increased epicardial fat and increased CAC had the highest risk of death. Compared with a model containing lnCAC and traditional risk factors, a model additionally containing epicardial fat volume yielded a better model fit (likelihood ratio test < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Increased epicardial fat volume is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk. In addition, it portends incremental prognostic value to CAC score in mortality prediction.